that they lease thousands of acres from farmers who raise the seed and 

 Receive ample recompense for the production. In the East, the North, the 

 liddle West, and the South there is the uncertainty of thunder-storms, and 

 \n many sections severe wind-storms, which, when the products are matur- 

 ing, would destroy, or at least render useless, the entire crop, so far as 

 »e value of its seed. A wind-storm would lay an onion-field flat to the 

 [round, or completely destroy the lettuce-seed, and in fact many other 

 rarleties of vegetable- and garden-seed grown for seed purposes only. In 

 California these difficulties are overcome, for our summers are free from 

 lis danger, and on this account you will find along the Sacramento Valley 

 ind down through the coast counties south from San Francisco and to 

 Centura County many places where the seedmen are producing thousands 

 )f tons, which are shipped to all parts of the world. 



The famous Santa Clara Valley, the northern limits of which are about 

 thirty miles south from San Francisco, and protected on both sides by 

 lountain ranges, which form a wedge at its southern limits, has now taken 

 \e lead in acreage, and from a conservative estimate the various seed- 

 farms in this valley now have under cultivation 7,000 acres, while the total 

 icreage devoted to this industry in the State numbers 14,000 acres. The 

 leed-farms throughout California are devoted principally to onion, carrot, 

 lettuce, radish, salsify, spinach, and leek, and of garden seeds various 

 varieties of sweet pea. I believe that the largest production of any one 

 variety is the onion-seed. In addition to the above, one may secure the 

 seed of asparagus, cauliflower, collards, endive, cabbage, brussels sprouts, 

 kohl rabi, mustard, parsley, parsnip, squash, aster, balsam, candytuft, cal- 

 endula, centaurea, giant cosmos, gypsophila, mignonette, nasturtium, 

 poppy, phlox, stocks, verbena, and pinks, or dianthus. 



Of late years a new enterprise has been established in the raising of 

 seeds, which was brought about through the efforts of the United States 

 Government. It was found that canary-bird seed will mature to perfection 

 in the Santa Clara Valley, and the result has been that within the past three 

 years it has become an adjunct to the seed-farming industry of the State. 



These large seed-farms must not be conflicted with the thousands of 

 nurseries throughout California, which propagate millions of plants and 

 roses, and raise some seed on a small scale. The seed-farms are a distirvc- 

 tive enterprise devoted exclusively to raising the various seeds above named 

 on an extensive scale so that the Government and the large pickle-factories, 

 the candy-factories, the bakeries, and various other lines of business may 

 secure seeds in quantities which contracts could not be filled on lesser 

 scale. The exportation of our seeds to England, Germany, France, Canada, 

 and in smaller proportions to the other foreign countries has increased each 

 year until at the present time it is customary for the wholesale seed-dealers 

 of Glasgow, London, Liverpool, Berlin, Paris, Quebec, and Victoria to make 

 annual trips to California, which, combined with the commercial element, 

 becomes a pleasure outing as well. 



One does not become particularly imbued with a sense of the beau- 

 tiful when speaking of onion, for we are so apt to think of the strong odor; 

 but it is a beautiful sight to see a field of five hundred acres of onion-stalks, 

 with their large clusters of bloom, bending and nodding to the gentle breeze, 

 reminding one of the ocean ripples, a-glisten in the sunshine with every 

 motion. A lettuce-field in bloom presents one mass of snowy white, and 

 when the eye follows the tiny rows to the farther end of the field all seem 

 to unite in one large mass of bloom. But the most charming and most 

 effective combination of sweetness of odor and variety of color is found 

 in the sweet-pea fields, where the many varieties are separated from one 

 another by some other flower or vegetable, so that the pollen may not 

 mingle, and that the seed may be true to its name. You may look in a 

 straight line for a mile, until the bed tapers to apparently a point, — all one 

 vast extension of bloom, each color separate, some white, some red, others 

 variegated, and so on, until one has seen perhaps eighty-five varieties. 

 The odor from the flowers so permeates the air that when driving near 

 these farms or in traveling by on the steam-cars one becomes aware of their 



